


A Culture Festival?

by 10moonymhrivertam



Category: Fruits Basket, Ouran High School Host Club - All Media Types
Genre: Crossovers & Fandom Fusions, Gen, ambiguous timeline
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-29
Updated: 2020-04-29
Packaged: 2021-03-01 18:47:42
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,353
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23901820
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/10moonymhrivertam/pseuds/10moonymhrivertam
Summary: A flier advertising the Kaibara High Culture Festival falling from a bag leads to furthering the Host Club's education in all things commoner.
Relationships: Fujioka Haruhi & The Ouran High School Host Club, Hanajima Saki & Honda Tohru & Uotani Arisa
Comments: 5
Kudos: 29





	A Culture Festival?

**Author's Note:**

> I might someday expand on or overhaul this, but at the moment I'm just throwing it up on here so my sibling can read it ^_^ Thank you all for joining me in my niche!

“What’s this?” Tamaki asked, followed by the rustling of paper. Haruhi glanced over her shoulder to see him holding up a simple but colorful flier.

“Oh. It’s from my old school...a culture festival. Did you get that out of my bag?” Her brow furrowed, a scowl threatening. 

“It fell out.” Tamaki raised his hands defensively. Mori nodded in agreement from his seat beside Honey, so Haruhi let it lie.

“‘Kaibara’, hm?”

“Oh, no.” Haruhi had a feeling she knew what that meant. She scrambled to think of a defense that would keep Tamaki away from the culture festival. “Everyone there will remember me the moment you mention my name,” she hurried to say. “They’ll all know I’m not supposed to be wearing a boy’s uniform.”

“Statistically, not all of them,” Kyoya said absently from one of the sofas.

“Still!”

“But they wouldn’t tell anyone here....would they?” Honey was pouting, that manipulatively young-looking pout. Several long moments passed as Haruhi stared back at Honey, unimpressed. He had more endurance than she did, though.

“Whatever. Fine. It’s a culture fest. Just don’t make it weird.” She scowled threateningly.

“Us? Weird?” Tamaki and the twins all asked at the same time. Haruhi pinched the bridge of her nose. 

* * *

It turned out the defense that Haruhi thought up the day they’d seen the flier hadn’t been a good one, anyway - they didn’t go in their school uniforms. Haruhi was in slacks and a familiar old blouse. It was a little odd seeing the boys out of uniform, but it wasn’t exactly the first time. She let the boys’ excited chatter pass over her without really listening to it. The twins followed Tamaki off in one direction. Haruhi shook her head and set off in another. Kyoya, Mori, and Honey followed in her wake. It felt a little odd to be the one leading the group instead of Tamaki.

Honey was excited, sticking his head into most of the rooms they passed. Haruhi was sure he’d see something that kept his attention and she’d lose him and Mori, but nothing actually managed to draw them away from her. Kyoya didn’t stray away or make any comments, which felt so different with the rest of the group (save Mori) being so excitable, but she was getting used to it. Haruhi stopped when she saw the number of the classroom she’d been looking for. When she started forward again, it was with single-minded determination. She pushed the door open and was greeted with a more lively classroom than she ever remembered seeing before, but the really important part was -

“Hey.” It was all Haruhi said, but it was all she had to say. Tohru turned to look and beamed. 

“Haruhi!” That got Uo and Hana’s attention, and they turned to look, too. Haruhi found herself ensconced in three sets of arms. 

“Hi, guys.”

When they pulled back, Uo looked her over. “I like the style. You didn’t seem to care much before.”

“Some kid put gum in it; hacking it all off made more sense.”

“I’m so happy you’re here.” Tohru was beaming ear-to-ear. “Oh! Are these friends from your new school?”

“Oh, yeah. So, um - Kyoya Ootori...then Mitsukuni Haninozuka...and Takashi Morinozuka. The twins and Tamaki-senpai are...somewhere.”

“It’s a pleasure to meet you,” Tohru said with her usual solemnity, offering them all handshakes. “I’m Tohru Honda, and these are Arisa Uotani and Saki Hanajima. Haruhi used to go to school with us.”

“A pleasure, likewise. So what usually happens at a...culture fest of this scale?” Kyoya asked, pushing his glasses up his nose. 

“Yknow, you might as well just say ‘commoners’ culture fest’ like Tamaki-senpai would.”

Kyoya’s lips twitched slightly down, making his expression sour as much as it ever did, and Haruhi realized he nearly had. She just barely held back a laugh at his expense. Uo looked ready to take issue with the phrasing, but she didn’t get a chance before Tohru happily waved them closer to the booth. 

“Would you like some rice balls, Haruhi? If you buy three, the fourth is free! But!” She added, holding up her pointer finger and looking deadly seriously. “Some of the flavors are duds! It’s a mystery!”

“Oh, neat. Uh, so there’s us four...and then the other three. I guess I’ll pay for six, then.” Either she’d eat the extra ball herself or see if she could talk Kyoya into knocking a few yen off her debt in exchange for it, although that was a long shot.

“Eight rice balls, coming up!” She smiled as she started lining up the Host Club’s rice balls.

“It’s not usually this busy, even at the food stalls,” Haruhi mused. Tohru looked suddenly crestfallen with a side order of guilty.

“Yeah, we’ve got a dancing pony.” The voice that answered wasn’t familiar. Haruhi looked over, raising her eyebrows. Seeing the color of his hair suddenly made her chest hurt. She’d used to see something like it every day when she’d peek in at the next door apartment, but Kyoko and her fiery hair were long gone from the complex. Had it really been four months since Kyoko had died and Tohru had moved away? Haruhi shook herself.

“That’s not bad on him. He doesn’t look super happy, though. What’s the story?”

“The upperclassmen talked him into it,” Tohru explained. “He’s really polite, and...everything...” Haruhi took note of her blush and decided to translate that as ‘Host Club worthy looks’. “So - when he started at the high school, people paid attention to him. The third years said this would be his gift to them.” She looked at him and smiled a little, before falling back into being as miserable as the guy in the dress looked. Haruhi looked at the crowd, thinking. 

“We could probably distract them.” She glanced at the other hosts.

“There’s something to be said for home field advantage,” Kyoya argued. “He has it. We don’t.” Despite what he said, the way he looked at the crowd was calculating.

“Hey. Those are our rice ball sales!” Kyoko-hair protested. In the split second Haruhi looked away from the crowd to glare back at him, a new arrival bounded in. Haruhi swiveled back around to stare.

“I definitely could have distracted them,” Honey whispered after Momiji introduced himself to the crowd. Haruhi nodded. It was weird, realizing she was thinking like a host. But even though she was obligated - well, it was something to do when she wasn’t studying. If it weren’t for the debt involved, she might even call it...fun.

“Sohma...” Kyoya murmured thoughtfully, watching the chaos upfront unfold.

“What’s it to ya?” Kyoko-hair asked as Tohru padded up to talk to the guy in the dress and the doctor.

“Merely that a few go to our school. The name is...rather prolific.”

“Yeah, well, it’s a big family. Some go to all-girls and all-guys schools. It’s not that weird.” Kyoko-hair - must be the ‘Kyo’ that Momiji mentioned, and the irony just hurt more - crossed his arms over his chest.

“Forgive me,” Kyoya said, bowing his head. Momiji scurried by them and another student shrieked as he swiped a rice ball and somehow scaled the stand. Haruhi couldn’t decide whether to be more impressed with the class’s construction of it or Momiji’s climbing skills. It was during Tohru’s cajoling and Kyo’s grabbing that Haruhi heard her name being called. She turned back to the door.

“Haruhi! I found a whole room dedicated to commoners’ coffee! Come and see!” He grabbed her arm and started tugging. Haruhi briefly wondered if shoving his rice ball in his face would buy her more time with her old friends, but - well, it wouldn’t kill her to let him be excited about something. She turned back to Uo and Hana enough to roll her eyes at them, and she tried to wave goodbye to Tohru before she disappeared behind the curtain, probably to give that Momiji kid a talk about safety. She wasn’t sure she succeeded, but Uo and Hana waved back as the Host Club all filed out.


End file.
